I’ve been using laptops for over 15 years now, from an original IBM PC Convertible that ran off of two 3.5” floppies (and no hard drive) to a PowerBook G4 17”, with a rogues’ gallery of Compaqs, Dells, and HPs in the mix. And, yes, there were a few in there that I really fell in love with, like the Compaq Contura Aero 4/33 (with a nice display-mounted trackball), some random HP Omnibook (that survived a 5’ drop onto concrete at DFW airport), and the tiny HP Compaq TC1100 tablet PC (underpowered but so deliciously small).

But the one that has stood head and shoulders above the rest has always been the Apple PowerBook 12” 867Mhz.

It all started about four or five years ago, when the blond wood floors and shiny aluminum walls of the local Apple store started calling my name. A couple of visits later, and I found myself in the middle of yet another of my full-fledged technolust frenzies,

ready to sell my soul for a new piece of hardware. I ended up buying a PB12 at my local Fry’s (thanks to their no-questions-asked return policy) ... and returning it for a full refund after about 10 days.

I just wasn’t ready.

Yet.

Then as the days passed, with my data slowly filtering back into my corporate-issued Dell, I found myself wistfully thinking back on that PB12 ... the smooth aluminum case, the easy-winding power brick, the tactile keyboard ... and I realized I had made the wrong decision.

And so a while later I went back to my local Fry’s, and bought a previously-owned PB12. It ended up having some technical problems, and I went back and ended up exchanging it for a shiny new one, which became my constant companion for quite a while afterwards.